In their new project, the players of Die Redner ask questions about responsibility and options: those of a state, a society and an individual in the face of a real internal or external (ie terrorism) threat.

How can the state/the individualact or react when threatened?

Which actions and reactions are discussed?

Who is in a position to bear responsibility?

Who implements the decisions?

and how?

In an emotional speech on October 20th, 1977, shortly after the death of Hanns Martin Schleyer, Helmut Schmidt asked these questions. The answers lie not in the content alone, but in the perceptible human doubt, whether expressed through tone or style, of the ability to deal with this situation and this form of confrontation. To act or not to act, the result is unknowable, yet the responsibility remains...

German army doctor Heike Groos asked the same questions almost 30 years later. She was the physician on duty at the time of the June, 2003, suicide attack on a German bus carrying soldiers on their way to the airport at the end of their tour of duty in Kunduz.

Then too came the question of the responsibility to deal properly with the impossible.

These two documentations of original speeches, one historical, one recorded exclusively in an interview for Die Redner, form the foundation of response.UN.ability. Choreography by dancers from the Donlon Dance Company, filmed and brought onto the big screen in typical Die Redner style, give these words a new dimension. They deal with the same questions and transform them into movement and expression.

Together with Die Redner music, some played on Afghan instruments, the result is a compact work whose content is timeless. Its aim is to make a contribution to an Afghanistan discussion which is not (yet) taking place.